Rantings from the Left

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If Mitt Has One, Why Shouldn’t I?

An issue that has made headlines in this election cycle is the advent of the Super PAC, which came about from the Citizens United Supreme Court Decision. For those of you who do not know what a Super PAC is, it is a group of people or even an individual who raise funds to support a particular candidate. Now why is this dangerous? It allows candidates to create massive ad campaigns that are normally very negative but are completely faceless. Since candidates cannot technically coordinate with their Super PAC it means those negative ads are no longer coming from “Candidate A” but rather the attacks are coming from “Super PAC A”. It has completely changed how campaigns are run and just further creates an electoral process that is not based on the most qualified candidate but rather on the candidate who has the most Super PAC money. It is once again corporations and the richest people who are choosing our leaders while the middle and lower class continue to see their voice lessened.

All of the major candidates have their own Super PAC. Romney has Restore our Future, Perry has Make Us Great Again, Gingrich has Winning Our Future and my favorite, Stephen Colbert has his own Super PAC Making a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow (now known as The Definitely Not Coordinating with Stephen Colbert Super PAC). Colbert and John Stewart have teamed up to show the absurdities of the Super PAC and how candidates can legally coordinate with their Super PAC. They have shown how the Super PAC laws are hard to enforce and full of loopholes. Candidates can easily communicate with their respective Super PACs and create negative ad campaigns without any affect on their own campaigns. Typically a negative ad campaign is successful in small doses, however; as it grows larger voters sometimes rally around the candidate being bombarded with negative ads. Now, with the Super PAC, candidates are no longer making the attacks it is being done by a faceless entity. It is changing how elections work for the worse.

The funny thing is both parties claim they are against the Super PAC yet no candidate, Democrats included, is willing to put a stop to their own Super PAC. It is the old; if everyone else is doing it then I why can’t I. If either party is truly against these Super PACs then they should make good on their word and put an end to their Super PAC.